The Garden Path News

[h3]Hello gardeners,[/h3]
It feels as though July has rushed right past us this year. While work has been ploughing on as ever - with lots of proofreading, coding, designing, and music mixing - it has also been good to take a little break from the hot weather this month.

Let’s take a look at what’s been happening around The Garden Path this July.


[h3]Some Streams[/h3]
Recently my streaming partner-in-crime, Fern, made me aware that it has now been over a year since our first Twitch stream for fromcarrotcake. 24 streams and 283 followers later, it’s been a real treat sharing art and time with you all as we’ve discussed just about everything from how to create peaceful UI’s to “theoretical banana societies”.

More recently I've dipped my toe into a less scheduled format for streaming, where last Friday I hit the 'stream' button while working through mastering and mixing the game's soundtrack. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, it was fun sharing my thoughts, and made the time fly by. These ‘lazy streams’ might make an appearance every now and then, so make sure you’re following our channel if you’d like to be notified when we go live! Follow us here: twitch.tv/fromcarrotcake.

And of course, if you want even more The Garden Path streaming content, you can find us on TikTok where our wonderful community manager, Alex, goes live every other week as well as sharing all sorts of fun content. Have a look here: tiktok.com/@fromcarrotcake.

[h3]Game Updates[/h3]
With last month’s update being feature-focused, much of the work this July has been under-the-hood in preparation for big changes to come.

My priority for the upcoming 0.5 update will be a revisited tutorial and new-player-experience. I’ve been hard at work drawing up designs for a tutorial system that feels rewarding, unobtrusive, optional, and scales its information depending on how much the player wants to learn. This has been in-the-works for some time, and I’m eager to invite new players to try out the game for the first time, and hear how they get on.


Work on local multiplayer, our second stretch goal, is now in full swing, as we figure out camera, UI and controls to suit two players working side by side.


The game’s code is being changed in big-ways to accommodate multiple player characters and their respective data that’s collected while playing the game. Once the new systems work for single-player, it should be a simple step to drop another player into the Garden.

Plans are in the works for an interface that works across two smaller screens, with both shared and player-specific elements, and a control system that adapts to more simple devices (such as a single joy-con).

A small UI change has already made its way into the public build of the game - the new ID Card which helps provide more details for the item you’re inspecting in the game’s different UI elements. It’s been redesigned to better take advantage of vertical screen real-estate, allowing more room horizontally on-screen for single-player, and better fitting the slimmer split-screen views when multiplayer is ready.

Also some exciting news - a Nintendo Switch Dev Kit has been approved and will be on its way very soon! Hopefully, we’ll start to see some very real Nintendo Switch footage of the game in the coming months. Watch this space!

[h3]Your usual reminder![/h3]
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers. 🪴


Until next time…
Louis, carrotcake

*

Join our Discord server
Follow us on Twitter: @fromcarrotcake
Check out our TikTok: @fromcarrotcake
Find us on Instagram: @fromcarrotcake
Keep up via Mastodon: @ldurrant
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/

[h3]Hello gardeners,[/h3]

I hope you are all doing well, whether you find yourself in the warming summer weather, or if things are beginning to cool off on your side of the world. Work has been steady as usual, with a lot of proofreading, designing, coding, and of course, a lot of packaging, as the last of the physical Kickstarter rewards were sent out last month.

Now, let’s take a peek at what’s been underway recently and how development has gone over the last month.


[h3]Wholesome Direct[/h3]

We were delighted to be back at the Wholesome Direct, after making our debut with the cozy showcase last year! Not only did we get to show off a small clip of footage which you can watch on our YouTube channel if you missed it, but we were also invited to have our own Tabbal added into the design of one of the two Wholesome Direct t-shirts being sold in support of the Galaxy Fund, uplifting BIPOC, femme, and queer game creators.

You can learn more about the fund and this year’s and previous recipients by visiting supportgalaxy.fund. Here’s the design below, can you spot Tabbal in the bunch?



[h3]Game Updates[/h3]

A great deal of progress has been made since our last write-up. Last week brought with it the 'Marigold' (0.4) content patch which was bundled with a wealth of new features and changes. Trading in The Garden Path has seen a complete overhaul. Reflecting on user feedback, it seemed the currency-less philosophy was well-received in concept, but the mechanics could be confusing at times.

With small bars and big bars cluttering up the inventory, each with different colours and often-unclear meaning, trading could become mostly guess-work. The new system takes that guess-work away by bringing items’ characteristics to the forefront. Characters will now make their requests through a series of 'slots' you can fulfill with the variety of items in your inventory.



The requests are seeded, meaning that while each request is uniquely generated, the generated result will always be the same depending on what you wish to buy. That way if you don't have what you need, you can return with the right items and be free from any surprises (although, the seeds may change between updates!)

'Popsticks' are a new collectible obtainable in the Garden, each representing the different available family of plants you can grow.



But, perhaps more importantly, you can spend your popsticks via the new garden 'projects', placing them to help you plan and visualise areas of your Garden. The new 'Garden Designer' helps you quickly plot out how you want your garden to look.

Projects are automatically named based on the size of the design, and the plants that you've selected to use. Projects are kept and remembered in your inventory, so you can put one down and start another, or as many as you would like.



The new Community Centre is open for business, now found in the starting acre just across from the shrine. The Community Centre is made of three parts, two of which are now available. The first: the Community Board. Currently you can take the projects from your inventory, and initiate them; taking the plan you've made and blocking it out into the actual game world, allowing you to easily plant the right seeds in the right places, and track your progress.

Soon you'll be able to assign different residents of the Garden to help work on your projects too. The Community Board will soon also be a hub of activity, giving you a clear idea of what's on, and what to look forward to in the coming days.



The second part is the new Compost Bin, found on the right-most side. Here you can dump any and all harvestables and botanicals you've collected in exchange for popsticks - the greater the quality of items you compost will yield a greater number of popsticks, and the greater variety, the rarer the popsticks you will qualify for. A good way to clear up inventory space, and build up your collection in return.

But who should come and collect the compost other than new garden-frequent, Worm! Worm has a penchant for fine bio-degraded garden waste and will be the one delivering your popsticks each day, should you have offered up items to compost the day prior. Keep an eye out, and be sure to say hi.



Finally, a large amount of under-the-hood work has at last been pushed to the public build as of 0.4.1, most importantly the new world-streaming system which should significantly reduce load times and memory use in short play sessions. This is an important stepping stone in making the game more stable and optimised, in preparation for our Kickstarter stretch goals - Nintendo Switch support and local multiplayer.


[h3]Your usual reminder![/h3]
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers. 🪴


Until next time…
Louis, carrotcake

*

Join our Discord server
Follow us on Twitter: @fromcarrotcake
Check out our TikTok: @fromcarrotcake
Find us on Instagram: @fromcarrotcake
Keep up via Mastodon: @ldurrant
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/

[h3]Hello gardeners,[/h3]

We are well on our way into Spring now and as we inch through the year we get ever closer to the release of The Garden Path! While work continues behind the scenes, we took a big step at the end of April as we placed 100 early access copies of the game on itch.io (with only 35 left)!

For now, though, let’s head into what’s new in The Garden Path.



[h3]Game Updates [/h3]
An updated character creator screen is now available, not only providing many more increments between each option but also including an entirely new slider to select your character's hair colour separate to skin tone. This means the total number of options has increased from 22 to almost 2,000! Changes also include better contrast from darker skin tones, as well as silver or greying hair.



Mulches have been added to the game, stocked and sold by Buttercup. Mulches are a way to further customise your garden. You can adjust the level of the soil to better accommodate different plants, choose to speed up, slow down, or totally halt the growth of the plant, and also cast the plant in a permanent state of spring, summer, autumn or winter, either to capitalise on certain harvestables, or change the look of certain trees throughout the Garden.



And coming very shortly: conker battles! Put your collected conkers to the test against residents of the Garden, collect winnings and build up a win streak. Villagers will challenge you to a match, and you'll pick which of your conkers you're willing to risk. Soon you'll be able to customise your conkers, and they'll change in hardiness and appearance depending on their age or which botanicals you apply.



[h3]Your usual reminder![/h3]
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path! And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers 🪴

Until next time…
Louis, carrotcake

Join our Discord server
Follow us on Twitter: @fromcarrotcake
Check out our TikTok: @fromcarrotcake
Find us on Instagram: @fromcarrotcake
Keep up via Mastodon: @ldurrant
Wishlist us on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/

[h2]Hello gardeners,[/h2]

I'm just stopping by with a small but exciting update for you all today~

[h3]I'm thrilled to announce that 100 early access copies of The Garden Path are on sale RIGHT NOW on Itch.io ahead of the full launch on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Linux later this year! 🎈 [/h3] Itch.io is the place to be, to walk The Garden Path early, to make friends, to make tea.

While this decision came partially from the desire to give those who missed out on backing The Garden Path during our Kickstarter last year another chance to support the game, this limited release also serves as a thank you to everyone for everything you've done to encourage and strengthen this game, this community, and myself and the team. Truly none of this would be possible without you!

"Farm, fish, and befriend enchanting residents as you explore the old garden and welcome your role as the new gardener in this pensive taste of the simple life."

This launch features early access to the full game, which means some features are still missing and some bugs are still lurking along the path. Your feedback will help guide me in making sure The Garden Path is as polished and charming as it can be in time for the full release later this year, and I appreciate every piece of feedback or bug-spotting you share!

This early access build will also receive all future updates to the game and will be updated regularly as development continues with your help.

[h3]To find out more, or to grab yourself the game, head over to Itch.io: https://carrotcakestudio.itch.io/ 🌿

Oh, and did I mention the price will be cheaper than at full launch!?[/h3]



For those of you who have already backed the game here are some answers to what you might be wondering...

🌱 If you chose Itch.io as your preferred platform then you will be getting access to this same early build of the full game! Expect to see that pushed on the Itch.io dev log, or keep an eye on our Discord server!
🌱 If you chose Steam as your preferred platform then unfortunately the wait continues. You'll have access to the game at full launch, as soon as possible. If you would like to switch to Itch.io then just send us a message here on Kickstarter and we can link that request for you and make it happen!

Thank you so much as always, whether you backed the game last year, will be buying the game on Itch.io, or are just hear reading and supporting The Garden Path!

Until next time…
Louis, carrotcake

~
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/nWTg5WvZbU
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fromcarrotcake
Check out our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fromcarrotcake
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fromcarrotcake/
Keep up via Mastodon: https://mastodon.art/@ldurrant
Wishlist us on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/